I opened my mouth. Closed it. Somewhere behind the thudding in my chest, pieces were clicking into place.
She held the blueprint up again, hands trembling. “He wouldn’t do this. Not tous.Not if he knew.”
“No,” I said quickly. “No, of course not. Cal’s not… he wouldn’t keep something like this from you. Fromme.It’s Hal. Hal’s been running the show. Cal’s just been reading whatever Hal puts in front of him. He’s meeting with him right now about the land -use.”
Her eyes widened. “My family are going to the same meeting. My father has no idea Cal will be there, he would have said something before now.”
“And Cal has no idea they’ll be there either.”
She dropped the map and gripped my arm tight, her voice full of urgency. “Matt, if Cal’s in that room with Hal… and Tutu and Nakoa and Kimo show up…”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence.
We both knew what that would mean—
The family of our dreams would be torn apart before the baby was even born.
I grabbed the car keys off the hook by the door.
Leilani was already sliding on sandals.
We didn’t speak.
We just ran.
We bolted through the main doors of the courthouse, Leilani waddling with surprising momentum and me scanning wildly for a reception desk, a sign,anything.
A bored woman sat behind a plastic divider, sipping something from a giant sippy cup and typing with one hand.
“Hi, sorry—where’s the land-use meeting?” I panted. “Croft Enterprises. Calvin Croft. Hal Chambers… possibly dressed as a villain.”
She blinked. “Room 204. Second floor.”
“Thank you!”
We were already moving.
The elevator took so long to arrive that I thought time had stopped, so we took the stairs instead—Leilani one intense, determined stomp at a time, me practically dragging her arm while apologizing profusely. She didn’t seem to mind, although she looked like she was ready to personally sue the elevator company if it came to that.
At the top of the stairwell, we charged down a corridor, turned left, backtracked, turned right, then found a door labeled:Land-Use Review, Private Meeting.
We pushed through the door without knocking.
Inside, a conference table sat beneath flickering fluorescent lights. Cal stood at the far end of the room, leaning over a blueprint spread out across the table. Hal sat beside him, smug and polished in a bone-colored blazer, and a lawyer in a charcoal suit blinked up at us like we’d just walked in on a board game.
Three heads turned at once.
And Cal froze.
“Matt?” he said, confused. “Leilani?”
His eyes flew to her belly, then to me, then back again. “Oh my God. Is it time? Are we having a baby?” And then logic caught up. “Wait. Did you come here to get me on the way to the hospital?”
As if he already knew what was going on, Hal leaned back in his chair, looking irritated but not surprised. “Well. This just got interesting.”
Leilani clenched her jaw and glared at him. “You knew all along, didn’t you.”
Cal looked between us, completely lost. “Wait. Stop. Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
